"calm down, look" Rock pointed to Bottle's flank his mark still has color "he's not dead yet" Rock puts his ear to Bottle's muzzle "good he's still breathing, but its weak"

Fever's eyes grow wide "Rock you gotta do something"

"luckily I got Zack's friend Martial to show me some tricks" Rock stands up on his hind legs and points both his fore hooves at Bottles prone form whispering 'Terra Vigoratus' the green orbs once again leap from the ground and fly to Bottle Rocket's body. A few moments later he cracked his eyes open just in time to see,

Weaver's coat stand on end and start to glow as her mane began to flow upwards as if she is standing on an air vent "I make you pay!" she screamed with a distorted voice opening her eye to reveal her eyes are blank.

"oh, I hope you put up more of a fight than your coltfriend" Weaver's empty eyes narrow as her horn glows furiously sending sparks flying causing the number of 'protect's to triple as they soon swirl together to form six swords that float next to her like wings "oh this look like it'll could get interesting.

As the awe-inspiring display of evades, dodges, spectacular magic, and deft swordsponyship begins to rage Fever rubs his eyes over and over again to try and make heads or tail of it till giving up and asks "Rock what in the name of Celestia is going on?" Rock just shakes his head and shrugs.

Zack's voice makes both of them jump and surprises Bottle turning to see they are right next to him, Nightblade, and Thrill "its called 'Rage Shift' when a unicorn of decent power is pushed to an emotional breaking point their bodies go through a change and their power almost triples"

Sedo turned to avid a streak of red magic as Spell Weaver sent spell after spell at the other pony. "Your stronger then your pretty little friend." She admitted, flipping over a slash from a set the unicorns magical blades. "But you lake GRACE!" She shouted the lased as she powered down, driving Spell Weaver under a flood of freezing water.

Sedo barley had time to enjoy a satisfied smile before having to roll out of the way a flurry of stabs as Spell Weaver shoot from the water in a blaze of light.

"I WILL TARE YOU APART!" Weaver screamed as her swords dissolved into a a cloud of razor sharp shields.

"Well... that's new." Sedno commented, before being slammed by the full force of the cloud.

"WOOHOO! OH COLT THAT WAS AMAZING!" Fever Pitch zipped out to Spell Weaver who was still starring blankly into the water.

"She is not dead. Not yet. It will not be that easy." Spell Weaver's voice practically bristled with anger.

"She is right, she took a nasty hit, but I doubt that would have killed any of you straight out and it will not keep her down for long." Thrill flew up to the other two.

"Rocket?" She asked.

"Hurt badly, but alive." He reassured.

"3... 2 and..." Bottle muttered into the sand.

Rock and Zack where hit by a waver of sea water as Sedo burst from the sea onto the beach.

"Say goodbye to your little colt friend!" A cut and bloodied Sedo screamed as she garbed Bottle Rocket around the neck with her magic.

"Oh no you-" Rock began spiting out a mouth full of sea water, before being interrupter as he was smacked in the head with a block of ice.

Spell Weaver rushed at the other pony, but before any of them could reach her she was back in the water.

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Spell Weaver snapped her head around to Zack and in a voice of cold furry asked, "Where did she go? What dose she want with him?"

"Ah good your awake listen well, I don't have much time, I know very well of Star's true plans and that to fulfill these plan the other five of us need to die so pay attention." Sedo sits in front of Bottle Rocket and lifts him gently so he is in a seated position as well "we are call the Shadows of Life, we once ruled over our respective elements guiding it to make a better future but Star soon grew angry convinced that the creatures of the world were leading it to ruin."

"In his mind the only way to save the world is to end it and remake it but the other gods didn't see his vision so a war began, I did things I'm not proud of including damaging the mind of the god of chaos. You must stop him, please this world it too beautiful..." she trails off with tears threating the edges of her eye that soon shrank "whatever you do, don't- urk" she was cut off by a white aura around her neck lifting her into the air.

With a flash of light Star appeared "un uh that's enough spoilers for now. It's a shame Sedo you had the most beautiful mind among us the way caused Celestia's heart to break was poetry in motion." Star's eyes moved to Bottle "the only way you can stop me is by not fighting but if you do that thousands of innocent shall perish the choice is yours" he said with a overly flamboyant flourish of his right hoof leading into a cut across causing Sedo's neck to snap and the bubble to collapse "make your choice"

-*-

Bottle found himself on the beach with Sedo's body and everypony else around staring.

"No... NO DAME IT! NO!" Bottle Rocket pushed himself to all fours and unsteadily hobbled over the the body of Sedo. "You monster! FOR ONCE WE HAD SOMEPONY WHO WAS WILLING TO TALK AND YOU MURDERED HER!"

Spell Weaver took a step towered Bottle then hesitated. "What happened down there?"

"Sedo told me part of what there planing. There fallen gods, playing out some twisted repeat of some old plan. Star, there leader, has been setting up his friend's to die fighting us INTENTIONAL! Its all part of his plan. Every time we think we have won, every time we DO win, we are just helping him unmake the world, bit by bit." Bottle Rocket slumped into the sand. "Either we kill them and let Star brake the world or we let them run free and allow thousands of incontinent die. Either way, we lose, they win." Bottle starts to cry bitterly as he half heatedly hit the dead mare.

Spell Weaver moved up besides the socked pegasus and lay down next to him. She draw him in closer with magic and held him there, not saying a word.

after he hit the body it began to glow and the symbol of water appeared on it's flank as it started to fade. Zack sat grinding his teeth "Faust damn you Luminous Star, your giving the Light a bad name" just then a small gem fell from Sedo's remains, after the blue orb flew away Zack picked it up "it can't be, it is! A Restituo crystal"

"A re..whatnow crystal?"

Zack laughed a little "Res-ti-tuo, this is one of the many forms the refined magicite can take, this type in particular can store an image or a moment in time." he trails off as he begins drawing arcane symbols in the sand and starts to channel some magic at a continuous rate. the crystal glows at an increasing pace until produces a cone of light.

Across from the group sits Sedo Undo, Weaver tries to charge her but Zack stops her. "if you are seeing this then I am dead, thank you Zack for activating this crystal, I was most likely successful in telling you all about Star's plan but I was most likely unable to tell you of us and how we are here. Only Luminous survived the war the rest of us didn't, when the balance was equal enough he forced our essences into five unborn foals, I will never forgive him for that but I ask that you all, Celestia, and Discord forgive me because since our return to power he has us under a spell the only way out of it is to use a large amount of magic." Rockbreaker raises an brow and opens his mouth to ask Zack a question but is cut off by Sedo "before you ask I just had to boil quite a few Sahagins, that is how I'm recording this but it won't last long you must stop him all he can see is darkness he can't see the balance.

you must be the ones to kill one of us if a mortal ends one of us then that mortal gains our role." Bottle's eyes grow wide as does Weaver's, Bottle thought that she would push him away but she hugs him closer "quell your fears, none of you are the one who did Necro in i'm afraid that was Luminous as well" Fever's wings flare as he stomped towards the image of Sedo "calm your self, you all saw a yellow flash before the blast right? that was Star killing Necro" She flinches "my time grows short, I leave you with one last warning do not le-" she's cut off by Luminous' voice

"Sedo there you are, what are you doing?"

"playing with my dinner brother" her voice gains the edge she had when they fought her "the fish of this bay are sooo tasty" she comments as she picks up the crystal and eats it, the image stops half way down her esophagus.

Zack looks pensive for a bit "I must return to Canterlot." Zack begins to move and the others start to follow but Zack hold out a hoof "all six of you are staying here for one night then you'll board a train for the Badlands, am I understood?"

"Um... No, no you are not." Bottle Rocket points a hoof at Zack. "You just heard what that message said right? There boss has been murdering each of his underlings one by one, probably sucking up there essence to power himself up into some kinda of... supper... god... thing! So now, when things are looking there WORST you want to run back home while we run off into the Badlands or is it that things are going to be bad in Canterlot and you want us out of the way? Either way, we need to stick together if any of us are going to make it out of all of this alive!"

Zack walked up to Bottle with his head low so his mane shadowed his eyes with a deep frown on his face. he put his forehooves on Bottle's shoulders and looked into his eyes, a look of resolute sadness clear on his face "I wish we could, but in order to have a chance at stopping this I have to back and gather our friends." Zack looked at the four strong and resolute stallions and two confident and capable mares, a smile forms "you four have gotten stronger with every battle and your only going to get stronger, I only wish that I'm there when you six reach your true potential. Our paths must diverge if we hope to have a chance, I trust you all... good luck" Zack walked away with a smile on his face 'best of luck all of you your gonna need it'

"Why did he have to throw in that last part?" Bottle Rocket shakes his head.

"Alright, you heard the stallion, lets get back to town. You all have till tomorrow morning to prepare and celibate as you see fit, but I want all of you on time and alert, on the station an hour before the train arrives!" Rockbarker shouts.

As the others salute and begin to depart he calls over to Thrill and Night Blade. "You two, I would like to have a brief word with the two of you if you are going to be coming with us to the badlands."

Rockbreaker raised an eye brow. "I was going to say that if you will be travailing with us and working with us without Zack's direct over site, then I think you should let me know a little more about you and what you are capable of. I don't like working with unknown variables in a life or death situation. Zack trusts you and I trust Zack, so don't take this the wrong way, I am not Rocket and I don't care if you are a pony, a changing, a diamond dog or the reincarnation of Nightmare Moon. Your clearly on our side and Zack vouches for you. That's that all I need to know about your loyalty, but that dose not mean I still not need to know what you are capable of."

The blue fur around Thrill's cheeks reddens "sorry, a lot of the guards have asked me if she was close by would she take control of me again." he said rubbing the back of his neck "but as for my capabilities, I'm a soldier class meaning I'm a bit stronger than an Earth pony but my air speed is low compared to my land speed as for magic I can do all the basic stuff but changelings specialize in illusion class magic such as mind manipulation, visual trickery, and form shifting. Before you ask the bigger and more spectacular the form the energy it takes to maintain, which is why I fainted after I shifted back from that dragon form." he stop and took a more solemn look "I hope you're all ready to see more changelings very soon"

"Well dame." Rock grunts. "Alright then, how about you Night Blade? I have seen you fight and your certainly no slouch, but what exactly can you do and are there any blind spots I should know to cover?"

"well, not really, my hearings a few times better than a yours so its really hard to sneak up on me." She said with a no small amount of sadness but after a pat on the back from Thrill she continues listing "15.3 wing power and 8.6 hoof power last time I was measured, proficient with daggers and mini-claws, highly proficient in stealth, great night vision, and Thrill and myself developed a why to stay in contact using frequency made by the vibrations of his wings. that's about it"

"Well that's nothing to just wave off." Rockbreaker nodded. "Alright, well I still need to talk deal with a few things before we leave so I will leave you too do what ever it is you feel like doing till tomorrow, thou unless you patched things up with Rocket alto better then I would have predicted, you might want to have a word with him... And you should DEFINITELY talk to Spell Weaver at some point, preferably on her own. I will need to have a word after I deal with Fever Pitch." Rock turns turns and walks away, muttering something about teaching Fever a thing or two about making claims he could not back up.

* * *

Bottle Rocket stared dully at his barely touched late lunch. A few days ago, the idea of being in a nice restaurant, sharing a meal with Spell Weaver would have seemed like a crazy fantasy. Today, after fighting with Thrill, fighting with Weaver, fighting with Sendo, finding out attest what was going on and getting close to shouting at Zack, he felt too cold and tired to feel amazingly positive about the date.

He had begun to formulate a plan, but the mere idea of it was... almost to horrible to think about, but what other chose did he have?

Spell Weaver wanted to say something.

She felt a dull throb of directionless anger building at the back of her mind. Bottles racist remark had made her angry and it was certainly the kinda of thing that she would have to deal with sooner rather then latter, but he had flown off rather then deal with her. By the time he had come back, it was with the enemy nipping at his hoofs, as per usual, but that had been a good thing, since it gave her a chance to re prioritize things. Bottle had tired to fix things during that fight and prioritized herself and her feelings over his own safety, which while honestly a simple minded of him (since she WAS much better at blocking incoming attacks then him) it was a sweetly noble juster. One that almost got him killed, again. Then that monster made a pass at Bottle, tired to kill him and taunted her with him and after all of that Bottle had come out of it all, having a brake down and needing her to comfort him over HER, because while she had him off somewhere, leavening her believe that he had drowned, she had ("You know, your kind of cute it really sad I have to let you drown.") been filling him in on all there bucking plans off on there own. Then she had died, far robbing Spell Weaver of her vengeance leaving her to try and comfort her coltfriend over that REAL monsters corpse!

She she swore Bottle Rocket has a deathwish and he would probably be LIKE to date somepony who helped him along with that!

She tired to bush aside that train of thought. Bottle Rocket would be alright... given a bit of time and care... he had to be. right?

"this place is special, it has many uses but I'm using it to talk to you. You see I noticed something when I was talking to your coltfriend as I snapped Sedo's neck, he and I have something in common a sort of resonance which intr-" he was cut off by Weaver shouting

"you and him are nothing alike!! Your cruel, manipulative, callous and evil. Bottles nothing like you, he is kindhearted, strong, loyal, a bit crazed a times but still more of pony than you'll ever be!"

"funny you should say that" slowly Star body melted away leaving an exact mirror of Spell Weaver in his place"because I don't know if we deserve him" it said looking down, forlorn, and sad "after all are we any better than Sedo Undo, we wanted to kill her right, I mean we're sad now that we didn't get to finish her right?"

"no that's not-"

"yes we are, think about it. highly intelligent, calm 'most of the time', and a combat specialist. we're just like her."

"no, no, no!" depression overtook her but it was cast a side by a voice"I'm sorry"It was Sedo's voice "so what if I'm like her that might not bad thing, she tried to do the right thing in the end as far as I'm concerned I'm going to live my the way I want to and I want to have a nice date with Bottle Rocket."

"good answer" was the last thing Weaver heard as she vanished. Once she was gone the other Weaver turned back into Luminous Starwho turned around and walked into the black nothingness "everything coming together nicely. soon you'll be back where you belong Mother."

-*-

Spell Weaver drew a gasping breath startling Bottle Rocket out of his thoughts, Weaver looked around, apparently only a moment or two had passed.